Judy Nissanov’s baking became popular when her son’s army buddies couldn’t get enough of her cookies.

The Cookie Monster would be in seventh heaven at the Nissanov home in Ra’anana.
That’s where Judy Nissanov, who made aliya in 1991 with her husband Gideon and
four children, settled and became famous for her baking talents. Cookies for
friends, cookies for soldiers, cookies for the family – until one day she
realized that her cookies were so popular she might as well try and turn her
talents into a business.

Thus, Judy’s Sweet Petites was born and is now
being launched on a cookie-hungry Israel.

“I’ve always enjoyed baking,”
says 57- year-old Nissanov, who was born in Israel to Holocaust survivor parents
with whom she moved to the US at the age of four. “I decided to take it to the
next level and make a business. Will I succeed? Only time will tell.”

Her
mother, Bertha (Bracha) Weinberger, who lives with the family, encouraged
Nissanov to venture into the cookie business. Weinberger had been sent
here by Youth Aliya after the war at the age of 13, and it was here that she met
her husband, Menachem, an Auschwitz survivor who also came here alone, having
lost his entire family. He had been one of a group of boys pulled out of
the gas chamber at the last moment to help the Nazis unload some potatoes, an
episode described by another survivor, Nachum Hoch, at the Eichmann trial. The
family stayed in Israel until 1960 but as her father could not receive the
medical treatment he needed, they left for the US and Judy did not return until
she was 16.

“It was always my dream to come to Israel and when I did come
as a teenager, I felt immediately at home,” she says.

At 19, while
studying for a degree in junior accounting, she married Gideon, an Israeli in
Brooklyn who worked in the diamond business and often traveled back and forth to
Israel.

When their children were 16, 13, 10 and three, “a good friend who
was a Bnei Akiva shaliah [emissary] said ‘if you don't go now, you'll never do
it,’” she says.

So they packed their bags, arriving in Israel in 1991.
Judy helped Gideon with his business, keeping the books, while the children
settled in to schools. Other than that she didn’t yet work outside and remembers
having a good time and making many new friends.

With the children growing
up and becoming Israelis, she wondered about getting a proper job, and when a
friend suggested that she might like to work in a clothing store she was going
to manage, Nissanov jumped at the chance to get out of the house. She liked it
so much she decided to buy a franchise and opened a successful store of her own
in the Ra’anana industrial zone, “The Machsan.”

“I had the store for over
six years and I really loved working with people, but in the end it got too much
for me so I gave it up and went back to working with my husband,” she
recalls.

MEANWHILE THE sons had grown and done army service, but it
wasn't until her youngest went into the paratroopers that her cookie-making
talents became legendary.

”The soldiers called me “Mother Cookie,’” she
says with a laugh. “Every three weeks my son came home and returned with a batch
of cookies for the entire regiment. When I went abroad for a visit, he
insisted I leave a stash in the freezer.”

Her parents returned to Israel
three years ago and Nissanov would bake special sugarfree delicacies for her
father. Sadly, he died only a month after his return. Her mother, who had worked
all her life in the garment industry as a pattern-maker, encouraged Nissanov to
turn her cookie talents into a business.

Since starting in earnest she
has learned many new secrets to successful cookie-making.

“I’ve
discovered it’s not just getting the ingredients right that counts, but other
factors like the temperature of the room and the weather outside affect the
final result,” she says. “I’ve even realized that my mood sometimes affects my
cookies.”

She has plans to join forces with another immigrant who started
a very successful catering business and rent space together with her to carry on
baking. At the moment all her crispy little miracles come out of the standard
kitchen in her third-floor apartment.

She also wants to get kashrut
supervision, realizing that although she is observant herself, many religious
people would not buy her products without some authorization that they are
kosher.

For years she baked her cookies relying on recommendations to
spread the word, but in today’s competitive business world she realizes that is
not enough and plans to open a website. For the moment she is counting on her
Facebook page, where pictures of mouthwatering cookies are available for all to
see.

They look good and you have a personal guarantee that they taste
great too.

Sites Of Interest

The Jerusalem Post Customer Service Center can be contacted with any questions or requests:
Telephone: *2421 * Extension 4 Jerusalem Post or 03-7619056 Fax: 03-5613699E-mail: [email protected]
The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 07:00 and 14:00 and Fridays only handles distribution requests between 7:00 and
13:00
For international customers: The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 7AM and 6PM
Toll Free number in Israel only 1-800-574-574
Telephone +972-3-761-9056
Fax: 972-3-561-3699
E-mail: [email protected]